ECHO

"Remind me again why we aren't having this conversation back at the house?" I narrowed my eyes at Gemma.

Her gazed bounced from Arlo to me and back to him. While she opened her mouth to say something, no words came out.

I raised my eyebrow, urging her to give me an answer, but she seemed to have no logical explanation.

Or she did and just didn't want to tell you.

Something was off about Gemma and it wasn't the fact that she had found her mate and spent the entire night with him.

"Out with it, Gems."

She looked at Arlo for support.

"Tell her," he sighed and looked everywhere, but at me.

I didn't know what to make of that.

"I-we think that..." she paused for a minute before gathering her thoughts and continuing, "Mols might have tipped Colvin off," she finished, but took a step back.

"Come again?" I couldn't believe what she just said.

I was staggered.

"And what proof do you have?" I looked her dead in the eye.

Molly was one of us and accusing her just felt wrong. To make it worse, Arlo seemed to think the same.

She opened her mouth to speak, but I held up my hand to make her stop.

"Be very careful of the next words you utter or-"

"Or what, Echo?"

My head snapped towards Arlo.

His eyes flashed with anger.

I glared at him. He had no right to be mad after accusing Molly. All I had done was ask for proof.

"Are you really going to stand here and tell me you have no proof against her, but you think she tipped off that son of a bitch?"

"She has his number stored in her contacts and there was a deposit made to her account for ten grand," she said cautiously.

"How do you know this?" I whispered.

My world seemed to have been shaken, again. Someone whom I considered family had possibly betrayed me. The hurt broke my heart. I willed myself to stay strong.

There had to be another explanation – her side of the story.

"When we were tallying our accounts for funds, she accidentally opened up her page for the secret bank account with the funds displayed. We thought we were mistaken at the time, but I dug a little deeper and also found that it was indeed Colvin whom she had called when you were almost caught."

"When did you confirm it?"

"Last night-"

"When you were with Stone."

Gemma nodded.

"I wish you had told me a little sooner about your suspicions."

I gulped and ran my hands down my face.

"Why? So you could run away?" Arlo asked rhetorically.

"How are we going to handle this? If she tipped off him once, she might do it again."

I ignored Arlo's remark, but he was right. I would've found a way to run because that's what I had always. Protecting them had been my priority and it'll always be.

At the moment, I wanted to throw up. Molly had put our lives in jeopardy. I wanted to ask her why and if her actions were worth it.

Nothing could possibly justify what she did, and we might not ever forgive her, but I was going to give her a chance to explain – to at least hear her out.

"We have to be cautious and above all, we need to act normal," Arlo stated.

"But," Gemma bit her lip and hesitated.

"Well, go on," I urged her to continue, my impatience growing by the second.

"But she might not dare to. I've heard things and I am sure Arlo and Molly have too – about the Bloodrose Pack. If it's true, what people say, then even that son of bitch wouldn't dare enter the pack's territory. Nobody wants a war they can't win. And you can't win with Bloodrose as your enemy; which is why you have to stay here."

She locked her gaze with mine, letting me know she wasn't joking around.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me, Echo."

"And you agree with her?" I questioned Arlo while gesturing towards Gemma.

He pursed his lips into a thin line and just stared at the ground.

I scoffed.

He actually agreed with her on this. I shook my head and started walking in the other direction. What a great start to my day!

"Echo! Wait up!" Arlo called out, but I ignored him and kept walking.

Soon enough, he was by my side and so was Gemma.

He grabbed my elbow and brought me to a stop, but I just shook his hand off. Thankfully, he stepped back.

I was furious, confused and had no idea what to do.

For the last six years, my only problem was survival and staying hidden and I tried damn hard.

But now, everywhere little I believed in and whatever little happiness I had, it blew up in my face. It was like the universe was laughing at me.

I was not a perfect person; I was fucked up, but did that mean I wasn't entitled to a little slice of happiness and peace?

Now I stand to not only lose a friend who was family, but her actions could possibly be an onset of war amongst the packs. The Alpha, Jax, if he knew what Molly was up to, he would most likely kill her too.

But...

"Hang on," I whirled towards Gemma and asked, "How much does Stone know?"

"Nothing. I just told him that she had forgotten her password and couldn't access her account. I felt shitty doing it, Echo, but I had to," she said sincerely.

Arlo's phone started to ring and he fished it out of his pocket. He paused for a second before holding up the phone and showing us the caller's name. It was Molly.

Gems and I were looking at him, waiting to see what he would do. But he did nothing. He let it ring, until it went silent.

I let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding.

"Let's just head back, act normal and keep an eye on her. When it's time, we'll question her," Gemma said.

I just hope it wouldn't be too late.

~*~

It was a while before we came home and upon entering the house, delicious aroma of the pancakes and bacon hit our nostrils. At the same time, my stomach grumbled.

"Oh, good! You guys are home," Molly chirped.

She looked like her usual self – all happy and a contrast to how she was last night. My heart broke for her last night, but now I didn't know what to feel.

All of us gave her a forced smile before taking a seat at the table that was filled with enough breakfast to feed a small pack of wolves.

"You made all this?" Arlo asked shockingly.

"Yep!" She exclaimed happily.

Act normal. Act normal, Echo.

"Looks delicious," I appreciated.

She seemed happy by the compliment and sat on the chair besides me to the right.

Just as I was taking the first sip of my coffee, the doorbell rang and Arlo groaned.

He grumbled a 'great' sarcastically under his breath. I rolled my eyes at him.

"It's for you, you know," he looked straight at me.

I gave him a confused look, but nonetheless, got up with the coffee mug in my hand and made my way to the main door.

I tried to take a sip of my coffee and again, to my dismay, I couldn't because when I opened the door, my world stopped, but in a good way.

Soft tingles covered my body and a sense of warmth washed over me even though a pair of cold blue eyes stared at me.

A lot of time must have passed because I simply couldn't look away. His eyes were fascinating.

The only thing that broke my out of my daze was when his eyes travelled down my body and up again. They had darkened to the point where they were almost black except for the gold flecks.

A slow growl erupted from his throat and that made my inside warm. Not only that, the clawing feeling at the back of my mind had returned. I tried to shake it off without being obvious, but clearly, that sensation wasn't going away any time soon.

"You might want to change." Alpha Jax said harshly.

"And why would I do that?" I asked.

"Because I said so."

I leaned against the doorframe and casually responded, "I don't take orders from you. Plus, I am free to do what I want and that includes dressing up the way I like."

A flicker of irritation crossed his beautiful face. I was going to say this just once and not out loud – I missed having my wolf's night vision.

Boy, I missed appreciating this fine specimen last night. People describe men as Greek Gods, ha – Alpha Jax beats them all.

He stood before me, without any flaw in his appearance. His midnight black hair was neatly slicked back with a loose strand going wayward.

Jax wore a grey suit that fitted him perfectly in all the right places. He was tall, muscular, but with a lean built.

I hadn't realized I was ogling him until he cleared his throat and my eyes snapped to his, widening at the same time.

He gave me a devilish smirk full well knowing what I was doing.

I tried to appear nonchalant about it, but my cheeks gave away when I felt the warmth reach them.

Clearing my throat and shrugging off my embarrassing moment of being caught, I asked him what he was doing here especially this early in the morning.

"I thought I'd take you to breakfast, but it seems I might have missed the window," he said, gesturing inside.

I contemplated and as much as I wanted to stay away from him, I also wanted to be near.

Giving into a need was unlike me, but today, I did just that.

"Perhaps, you could take me lunch," I said, pushing my body away from the door.

"I'll pick you up at two," was all he said before he turned on his heel and walked away.

I saw him get into his car without him looking back. He drove off as if he wasn't even here a minute ago. It was strange and weird; I was dumbstruck.

Shaking my head at nothing in particular, I closed the door and went back to sipping my coffee that had gone cold. The three of them questioned me about the Alpha, but I just shrugged.

The entire morning passed by in a blur after that and it was now time for my lunch date with the Alpha.

Wait, does this constitute as a date? But he didn't particularly ask. Oh, gosh.

I was freaking out and the lunch was going to be a disaster.

Since the time I left the pack, I never dated and I never once went out with a guy. It was risky, but also, it wasn't a priority.

Never had I thought that this day would come, but it had and now, my lack of communication skills was going to turn it sour.

I scrunched up my face at the thought. It wasn't that I was too shy, in fact, it was the opposite. I blurted out whatever I felt was right. Beating around the bush had never been my style.

Everybody had disappeared after breakfast leaving me alone in the house.

I started to get ready an hour before the Alpha was supposed to pick me up.

Choosing a simple, but elegant look, I settled on wearing a grey woolen turtle neck top, blue skinny jeans, beige heels, and finally pairing it with a beige winter coat that reached my knees.

I combed my black hair and thankfully, I had a good hair day today so I let them loose.

I was ready and was waiting for him.

Nervousness and excitement pooled in my stomach at the same time, but with every passing minute turning into hours, it was overtaken by disappointment.

He stood me up.

He fucking stood me up.

I shouldn't be shocked, but I was. The least he could've done was inform me that he wasn't going to make.

Like a fool, I waited for him until six in the evening.

My temper sparked and I left the house and locked it behind me.

Just because he didn't take me to lunch, as promised, didn't mean I couldn't take myself.

I was going to have a nice dinner all by myself and then drop by the bookstore to buy a novel. It would be the perfect evening.

There was still no word from the three of my friends so I didn't bother calling them.

Dark clouds hovered above and a cloud breeze blew making me hug my coat a little tighter. But when a shiver ran down my spine and the hair on the nape of neck stood up, I knew it wasn't the cold weather.

When I glanced over my shoulder to check if someone was watching me, I accidently bumped into someone.

I was about to apologize, but before I could, a felt a piercing jab of pain in my neck and the next moment, my world went dark.

---

A/N:

Phew! This was the longest chapter I've written for this book so far. Hope you enjoyed it!

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Qotd: Which song would suit this chapter? x

Love,
Grace Clarke xo